Julie Domel

The entertainment options in San Antonio in 1891 were limited, as was exposure to the exotic, so the arrival of a circus in town was exciting. San Pedro Park had a small zoo in the late 1800s, but the San Antonio Zoo didn’t open until 1914, and the offerings were limited. Costing “one dollar at […]
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So much oddness in one place, where do I start… The News was known for its attention-grabbing headlines, and ”Head found afloat in Austin lake” certainly succeeds. The overhead adds to the local appeal: “May link to hand, foot found in S.A.” The severed hand and foot were found the previous week in foam ice chests in Salado Creek, and […]
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I wish it was just a vacation that caused a bit of a break for the blog, but we’re back with two local buildings whose completion was trumpeted in the Express on January 1, 1922. The top building is “the new east wing and one-story addition to the main building of Santa Rosa infirmary.” Designed […]
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Given the historic nature of the June 25 U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding the Voting Rights Act of 1965, I thought I’d look to see how we covered the signing of the bill into law. Hindsight is always 20/20, and occasionally events prove to be more historically significant than were thought of at the time. […]
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We all know people that are late for everything, and some are already showing these tendencies at a young age. Like this 11-year-old San Antonian, whose adventure was described in the Nov. 25, 1958, edition of the Express: He’d been late before, and his sister told him he’d be expelled if he was late again. […]
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This post comes in the opposite order than I would have liked, but when an editor comes asking for a photo, I had to make a sacrifice. A story about the June 30 retirement of Harte-Hanks CEO Larry Franklin in the June 12 Business section prompted a request for a photo of the KENS studios when […]
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A few months ago, I helped staffer Jessica Elizarraras with research for her story about restaurants housed in buildings that had once served other purposes. While doing that research, I discovered that the Sullivan Carriage House, now housing a restaurant at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, had once stood on property at 4th St. and […]
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At a recent staff meeting, the research staff were perusing printouts from microfilm of coverage of the infamous 1921 flood (we’re librarians, what do you expect?) because a colleague had wanted to verify some details. Also: The reproduction from that era is not easy to read. In that coverage, I noticed references to a 1913 flood that seems to have been […]
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I hope you have read staffer Karisa King’s three-part series, “Twice Betrayed,” about the stigmatization of sexual assault victims in the armed forces. The online version offers additional resources, including videos, more photos and relevant documents. Coincidentally, just last week, my colleague Lauren Brown was searching through the microfilm to fill a request when she was surprised […]
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On May 11, Mayor Julián Castro was elected to a third term. In 1965, so was Mayor Walter McAllister, even if the bigger news was that Rev. S.H. James became the first black city councilman in San Antonio history. From the Express, April 7, 1965: I did not realize until reading staffer Josh Baugh’s May 9 […]
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